Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-09-02
BARNUM'S SERMON.
His Opinion Upon tho Question of Drin
ing Intoxicating Liquors.

ing Intoxicating Liquors.
I should have been in my grave
twenty or thirty years ago if 1 had not
quit drinking intoxicating liquors, as I
did, in 1s47. I had contracted the
habit, had built up blind, unnatural
appetite for strong drinks, and really
liked the taste of every kind of liquor,
though 1 suspect 1 liked the effects
still better. I began to grow careless
and "slothful in business" and put off
till next week what I ought to have
done to-day. Fortunately 1 discovered
that the habit was destroying my
health and my worldly prospects, and
by most determined will-power l
conquered the powerful appetite which
had acquired for intoxicants and
broke it forever. I knew that habit
was second nature, and that the I'M
natural appetite for strong drinks was
stronger than nature itself, for every
sire for another glass, and so on ad
libituna, and therefore to have con-
quered such fearful habit was the
saving of my life and all that was
worth living for.
When I found myself secure from
falling back into the Whirlpool of intox-
icants, 1 felt as q shipwreckd person
must feel when his life is barely saved
by the ifeboat while many of his fell
low passengers were still struggling in
the waves. Being saved himself he is
exoitedly anxious to save others. I felt
so overjoyed at being snatched from a
habit which was surely dragging me
down to misery and death, that I found
my greatest pleasure consisted in cir
culating the temperance pledge, giving
temperance lectures free of change all
over the country, and using every eff
fort in my power to enlighten public
sentiment in regard to the fearful de-
fusion Of strong drink. I particularly
urged young men and young women, as
l now do, to start right in life to avoid
this greatest evil in the land-because
it is the parent of nearly every other
evil known, and is sure to utterly de-
stroy nine tenths of those who form the
drinking habit. begged them to
touch not single drop, because like
opium, morphine, and other narcotics,
the drinking of liquor calls for more
and more, to produce the same effect
that little produced at first, and thus
an artificial and unnatural appetite was
created that proved irresistible in q
great majority of cases. I showed the
youth Of this country that their health,
happiness, and success in life as we'll as
their posterity depended upon whether
they started on life's Journey on whisky,
beer, and other brain-muddlers, or on
cold water, natures beverage, which
gives the clear brain, the firm hand,
the strong resolution, and the noble
ambition to succeed in life, financially
and morally. [ am glad to know that
L have started thousands of young per-
sons on the right track, and that their
example will save hundreds of thou
sands OF their posterity and fellow
beings: 1t is one of the greatest pleas
ures OF the evening of my life that can
look back and see the multitude of
young married men, who were running
themselves and families by this social,
deluslve: and absolutely fatal habit of
dram-drinking, whom I have been able
to convince that they were on the wrong
track, and to induce them to switch off
ana take the Temperance track for life.
Many a wife, and son, and daughter
have clasped me by the hand, and, with
streaming eyes, have thanked me for
having saved them from misery and
degradation and saving their father and
husband ''N1>'
Young married men in Bridgeport
who were my tenants I have induced
to abandon the use OF liquor and to-
bacco on condition that would bu;ld
ana sell them house on credit, to be
paid for by installments. Numbers Of
s 81 men with growing families have
IN few years owned the houses thew
lived in, clear from debt, thew HAVING
saved the money by cutting off their
rum and tobacco expenses, and earned
more money by their renewed energy.
strength, and ambition. There is not
one redeeming quality in the LIQUOR
drinking habit. It does no possible
good, and it iniicts all manner of evil
on its victims, his family y, and friends.
II Is the most degrading, poverty.